Clemson Preview

So I've actually got a little more time this week, but I'm not going to mess with success.  The short and sweet blog method has been working well, so this week will also be short and sweet.

First of all I want to say don't be fooled by the defense.  Yes, I know, it appears that we have been improving.  Certainly we've put up good results the past two weeks on paper.  But its mostly been caused by two things.  One, we have played bad offenses, and two, those bad offenses have made unforced errors.  Mostly, dropped passes.  Not our fault, but we'll take it. We did force some turnovers, although some other turnovers have been mostly unforced errors.  But the defense deserves a little credit for making plays.

Unfortunately, I just don't think we are any better on defense.  Its the same old story.  We need to score and score and score some more or we could get beaten badly.  Because we just can't depend on getting stops, unless the other team gives it to us with silly mistakes.  Maybe things would be different if Cole Stoudt were playing, but I believe Clemson has Deshaun Watson back this week.  Stoudt's passer rating on the season is 119.  Watson's is 186.  Its not even close.  Watson is also the better runner if anybody is wondering.  They are a different offense with him.  Maybe he'll be sluggish in his first game back after the injury.  But if their offense is back to the pre injury Watson efficiency level, they will score and score a lot.

I'd like to think our offense, as good as it is, could keep pace.  But this may be the best defense we will play all year.  They are loaded, and extremely good up front.  Their only real poor game all year was the UGA game, and that wasn't all bad.  In fact, they played quite well until the 4th quarter, when you figure they had to be getting tired with their offense going 3 and out most every second half drive.  And UGA is an excellent offense anyway.

Most of UGA's success on this defense came at the expense of the LB's being out of position against the run, and the DB's not being very good in run support (read: poor tacklers, easy to block).  We will need to exploit the same weaknesses.  Because Clemson's D-Line is excellent.  No weaknesses.  And their LB's are big and fast and hard to block.  We need to try to get them running to the wrong place.  We should be able to have some success on the edge, blocking their corners and safeties.

But most importantly, we need to execute well and make no mistakes, because there isn't much margin for error this week.  The defense won't surrender many openings.  When they do, we need to take advantage.  And we'll just have to hope something good happens on defense.  I'm nervous, but if we play well, we could win.  It should be close, but if anyone is getting blown out, it'll be us.  I hope we play well.

As always, go Jackets!